Exclusive | Donald Trump unlikely to target Hong Kong dollar peg to US dollar, says former top diplomat
- Kurt Tong, who served as US consul general in city, says move would only serve to undermine his nation’s currency
- US president signed executive order ending Hong Kong’s special status but it made no mention of monetary delink
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What is the Hong Kong Dollar Peg?
Kurt Tong, the former US consul general who is now a partner at the business consultancy Asia Group, said delinking the currency would only undermine the status of the US dollar, and would be detrimental to American corporations, as it gained a lot of advantages from being used internationally.
Tong said speculation over seeing the dollar peg removed had faded, and the White House was not interested in it happening.
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Why Hong Kong pegs its currency to the US dollar
“It’s practically very difficult and expensive … to actively undermine the confidence of another currency,” Tong said.
“The peg is a Hong Kong policy to stabilise its Hong Kong currency for international transactions. It would undermine confidence of the US dollar as the most secured currency for transactions.
